The air near Wintermere was colder than usual. The chill slid through my sleeves, sharp and silver, like the lake had drawn in the breath of the world and held it there, waiting.

After Deveil’s Night and the solemn celebration of the Descent of the Veil, we resumed our training. The days that followed—nearly two weeks—were disciplined and steady, our efforts sharpened by all that remained unfinished.

The days had blurred into a steady rhythm of training. Every evening, we returned to the Council Chambers. Every evening, I stood at the etched map and tried to guide others in Binding magic, even when my own felt like a thin thread that could unravel if I tugged too hard.

Lady Isa had watched us closely the last few nights. And tonight, she announced it.

Nonis 27. Four more days.

That would be the day we entered The Seal.

Four days to pretend I could steady myself. Four days before I stood in a chamber beside the boy I had once loved and the man I could no longer name.

Neir had not left me alone once since Deveil’s Night. He had abided by my request to stay out of my dreams, though I blushed every time I remembered how each one used to end. Even in sleep, he was presence and heat and a memory I could not quite shake.

But in the waking world, he watched. He kept to his human form most days, though I saw the strain on his features more and more. When his hands began to tremble, he would leave our training early, and the wolf would be waiting for me just beyond the Council Chambers doors. When I rose each morning, he was already curled near the hearth in the common room outside my door. His large head rising to look at me.

And I had not sleepwalked once since.

Tonight, after Isa’s announcement during our training, I had slipped out alone, needing the quiet of the lake to settle the fragments inside me. I had not expected to stay long. I had not expected company. But I should have, knowing Neir never left me alone, except in my dreams.

And I knew his padded footsteps now.

I didn’t turn.

I just whispered, “You followed me.”

Behind me, a different sound, soft and deliberate. Not footsteps. A shift, from his wolf form. Which meant he naked, standing behind me.

“Of course,” I said. “You always do.”

He did not approach. Not yet. But I could feel him, close enough to reach me if I asked. Every part of me yearned to feel his arms around me. Never in my life would I have thought the smell of the sun would be so calming.

I kept my gaze on the lake instead.

“Are you really here for her?” My voice did not rise. I did not need it to. “You came to Nythral for Isa?”

A breath, then the voice I remembered. “I came at her request.”

I turned my head just slightly. “You always come when she beckons?”

Immediate heat scorched my cheeks thinking about the double entendre in my question. It’s not how I meant it, but I couldn’t help the direction of my thoughts, knowing a gorgeous, naked man, stood behind me, and knowing the power of that body over mine.

“There’s more than what you know.”

I waited. “More between the two of you?”

He opened his mouth. Closed it again. Then finally, “There’s nothing between us anymore.”

Why did that hurt?

I had no right to Neir, and he’d been alive many thousands of years longer than me. Of course he would have had lovers.

“But she still calls,” I said. “And you still go. I thought maybe you chose me. That maybe all of this meant something.”

“It does.”

I looked back over the lake so he couldn’t see the tears in my eyes. I congratulated myself when my voice came out steady. “But she has the power to call you away from me?”

Silence.

I nodded to myself. “I guess that’s the answer I needed.”

I turned away from him to leave.

“Rielle.” Neir laid a soft hand on my shoulder.

I bowed my head, my hair curtaining anything I could see of him. “I know you said to wait for you, but why do I feel like I never mattered?”

After that I pulled away to head back into the Academy. I had taken only a few steps when I heard it. His voice, not loud, but pulled from somewhere deep.

“You matter to me.”

I stopped. The words hung in the cold. They sounded tortured, almost echoing. Then I heard the first crack of his bones shifting.

“You’ve mattered to me since the moment I met you, when you called out to me in your dreams,” he said, and the sound splintered like ice under strain.

I turned, just as his form fully shifted. Muscles contorted. Bones trembled. And in a blink, the man vanished.

The wolf stood in his place, silver and blue shadow, chest rising too fast. He lowered to his haunches, not looking up. Just breathing, and staying.

I stared at the spot where he had stood. At the place where the words still echoed.

Then I turned again.

I didn’t say anything.

But behind me, I heard him rise.

One step. No more.

And he sat again.

Waiting for me, I guessed with surprise.

For weeks he hadn’t left me, but now he was giving me a choice. A singular decision that would tell him if we had any chance of surviving this.

I stopped, no anger in my heart. Pain, for sure. I ached for him, for his soul to become one with mine. I really didn’t know if we had a chance to survive this, but if I turned him away right now, that would be the end of it.

So, I nodded. Barely.

And behind me, the sound of paws on frost told me he followed.

This time, not because he assumed he could.

But because I said he could.